Fuel shortages put pressure on Johnson as UK crisis escalates

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(Bloomberg) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure to do more to ease a supply chain crisis in Britain after pumps ran out at some gas stations due to panic buying.

With a shortage of truck drivers raising the prospect of further disruption to food and fuel deliveries in the weeks to come, the government decided Sunday evening to temporarily suspend competition rules and allow companies to coordinate the fuel supply to the most affected areas.

This came after Johnson announced measures including a turnaround on easing immigration rules for foreign truckers and poultry workers and called in military examiners to help speed up driving tests. for heavy goods vehicles. The prime minister plans to use soldiers to drive tankers across the country, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified officials.

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“We have long-standing contingency plans in place to work with the industry so that fuel supplies can be maintained and deliveries can always be made in the event of a serious disruption,” the business secretary said. , Kwasi Kwarteng.

Businesses and opposition politicians have said the 5,000 new visas for carriers until Christmas will barely scratch the surface of a 100,000 deficit that has been exacerbated since the UK left the European Union. Ruby McGregor-Smith, president of the British Chambers of Commerce, compared visas to “throwing a dice of water on a bonfire”.

As some countries in Europe grapple with soaring energy prices and pockets of labor shortages, the UK faces a particularly grueling winter as it recovers from the pandemic. In recent weeks, hospitals have had to contend with a backlog of patients, empty supermarket shelves and now queues at gas stations.

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Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labor Party, criticized the Johnson government for not preparing for the consequences of Brexit. The UK voted to leave the EU in 2016 and its post-departure transition deal ended early this year. “We have an absolute crisis in this country because of a lack of planning on the part of the government,” Starmer said.

Find truckers

BP Plc, the UK’s second-largest fuel retailer, said it was running out of major grade fuel at nearly a third of its stations. Outside of the freeway network, at least half of gas stations were dry on Sunday, the Financial Times reported, citing Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association.

Read more: More UK BP stations run out of fuel amid panic shopping

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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps sought to allay concerns on Sunday, telling BBC television “there is actually a lot of gasoline to go around”. The driver shortage for the fuel industry was “one, two, three hundred”. He nevertheless left open the prospect of enlisting in the army to supply gas stations. “We will do whatever is necessary. ”

Until the weekend, the government had insisted that transport companies train locals and pay them more. Changes to immigration rules – which also add 5,500 visas for poultry workers – last 12 weeks.

Johnson has presented Brexit as an opportunity to remake the UK economy away from EU rules and its labor pool. The argument is that foreign workers have lowered domestic wages and discouraged recruitment and training. But companies argue they need a longer period to move away from this reliance on EU workers.

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End of leave

Food and fuel shortages add to a stack of daunting challenges for Johnson, as Britons face soaring electricity and gas prices just as some key pandemic support measures are lifted .

The flagship leave program that saw the government paying the wages of more than 11 million jobs during the pandemic ends on September 30. Labor released an analysis on Sunday showing some 81,000 aviation workers are among those at risk of losing their jobs when the leave program ends.

On October 6, a weekly 20-pound ($ 27) increase in Social Security payments called Universal Credit ends, a move that has sparked concern among conservatives because of its effects on poorer people.

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Newspapers began to refer to a ‘winter of discontent’, a politically charged phrase evoking memories of 1978-79 when the UK economy was brought to its knees by strikes and inclement weather. He ultimately toppled the Labor government, ushering in the Tories under Margaret Thatcher.

Tory ‘Scum’

“We have energy shortages, we have shortages in our supermarkets,” said Starmer of Labor. “We have prices going up. We have rising taxes for working families and we have the government taking a thousand pounds away from those who need it most.

Deputy Chief Angela Rayner put it more bluntly, calling the Conservatives “scum” during an event at Labor’s annual conference. This sparked a new feud within the party just as it sought to demonstrate to the electorate that it was united and ready to rule.

On Sunday, she refused to apologize for using the word, saying it was a working-class ‘street language’ of the north of England and that she was only referring to to members of the cabinet. “I was talking to a group of activists to tell them you must have this fire in your stomach,” she said.

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